The spacious playroom at Neko Maru East is pleasantly scruffy, filled with baskets and cardboard boxes, perches and multi-story miniature houses that are well-used by the resident 33 cats. Visitor seating is comfortable, if a bit scratched up, and beer and coctails are served after 6pm in addition to the usual coffee and tea. You can also order pasta dishes if you're hungry.

One nice feature here is the relatively late hours - the shop is open until 10pm with last entry at 9 - which tends to reduce crowding during weekday evenings. The atmosphere was relatively calm during a recent evening visit - not much in the way of high-speed chases, although there was a lively game of bottle-cap soccer at one point. Around half the cats, and one customer, were napping, which seems to be about average.

The cafe is located just a few minutes north of Kinshicho station, in a relatively gentrified part of the neighborhood - a sporting goods shop and a regional izakaya are downstairs, with a craft-beer bar a couple of doors down the street. Like the branch of this cafe in Ueno, the resident cats include several rescue cats from a local shelter, and they are available for adoption.

Click on photos below to see larger versions

Neko Maru Cafe East

03-5608-8007

Tokyo Kinshicho / Cat cafe

Open noon-10pm daily.

Entrance fees start at Y350 for 15 minutes weekdays, or Y1300 for 60 minutes on weekends